posted at 9:36 pm on June 18, 2012 by Allahpundit

Actually, it’s the Brotherhood itself that’s claiming their guy won the presidency. Official results are still forthcoming, so it’s still possible that the military will rig the vote to make Mubarak’s former prime minister, Ahmed Shafik, the winner. Then again, since they’ve already decided to preempt the election by declaring themselves the country’s supreme power, why not go ahead and let Morsi, the Brotherhood’s candidate, be president? Maybe the MB will be satisfied with a power-sharing agreement with the military; if so, the junta will be able to claim some shred of legitimacy for its rule.

Shafik, the old-regime rubber stamp, or Morsi, the democratically elected figurehead? Dilemmas, dilemmas.

The military’s new charter is the latest in a series of swift steps that the generals have taken to tighten their grasp on power just at the moment when they had promised to hand over to elected civilians the authority that they assumed on the ouster of Hosni Mubarak last year. Their charter gives them control of all laws and the national budget, immunity from any oversight and the power to veto a declaration of war.

After dissolving the Brotherhood-led Parliament elected four months ago, and locking out its lawmakers, the generals on Sunday night also seized control of the process of writing a permanent constitution. State news media reported that the generals had picked a 100-member panel to draft it…

Though final results were not available, Brotherhood supporters called the apparent victory by the Islamist candidate, Mr. Morsi, a rebuke to the military’s power grab. “Down, down with military rule!” a crowd at Mr. Morsi’s campaign headquarters chanted as he prepared to give a victory speech shortly after 4 a.m. Monday.

According to the BBC, the military’s decree also guaranteed them, ahem, “jobs for life.” Remember, Egypt’s parliament has already appointed a 100-member panel of its own to write the new constitution, so if the MB and military can’t hammer out a compromise, you’ll have competing bodies drafting competing documents. And since the country’s supreme court has already ruled that parliament was illegally elected, it’s a fait accompli that their panel’s constitution will be thrown out. Said one Egyptian human rights activist of the military’s power grab, “With this document, Egypt has completely left the realm of the Arab Spring and entered the realm of military dictatorship. This is worse than our worst fears.”

The MB will dig in now and try to organize a new revolutionary uprising to get the military to reinstate parliament and share power. Question: How will Tantawi and the rest of the generals respond? If they crack down, they might find themselves dealing with an insurgency, and that in turn might turn into civil war as anti-Islamist factions join with the army to try to crush the Brotherhood. I assume that, rather than face that, the generals will instead try to buy the Brotherhood off, whether by sharing funds or by cracking down on the MB’s Islamist rivals, the Salafists, instead. In fact, they held a press conference this afternoon in which a military spokesman insisted they’ll hand over power to the president in a “grand ceremony” before the end of the month, which I guess means … what? That they’re planning to rig the election for Shafik after all? They can’t hand over power to Morsi unless and until the Brotherhood agrees to leave the army and its many money-making endeavors alone. Has that deal already quietly been made or is it in the works?

Oh, and if you’re wondering why the military has granted itself veto power over declarations of war, that’s because not only are there various jihadist groups now apparently roaming around the Sinai looking to harass Israel, but there are claims that the Brotherhood itself ordered a recent Hamas rocket attack. That’s one bit of leverage that the MB has over the army — coordinating some sort of provocation with Hamas that might draw Egypt into a conflict with Israel, which the military of course would rather avoid. All the more reason for them to make a deal with the Islamists.

This doesn’t look good at all for Israel. Rocket attacks over the weekend and a terrorist attack across the Sinai border early Monday. Israel is moving tanks toward the Sinai border. I think the newly-elected MB president also stated that he had a goal of an Islamic Caliphate with “Jerusalem” as its capital. Not good at all.

Dr. Mohamed Morsi’s presidential campaign, announced at dawn, Monday June 18, 2012, that he won the runoff to become President-Elect of the Arab Republic of c. According to results received from our representatives and from count records of all polling sites, signed by presiding judges, the results indicated 13,237,000 votes (thirteen million, two hundred and thirty-seven thousand votes) i.e. 52% for Dr. Morsi.

His rival, General Ahmed Shafiq won 12,338,973 votes (twelve million, three hundred and thirty-eight thousand nine-hundred and seventy-three votes) i.e. 48%. and that of the total number of valid votes of 25,575,973 (twenty five million five hundred and seventy-five thousand nine hundred seventy-three votes).

On this auspicious occasion, President Mohamed Morsi’s Campaign pays special tribute to the martyrs of the January 25 revolution, and to the victims of the revolution, men and women, young and old.

Dr. Morsi pledges to the Egyptian people to be servant of all and to stand at the same distance from all Egyptians, Muslims and Christians, those who gave him their votes and those who did not.

After a press conference, at dawn, Dr. Morsi left the campaign headquarters and headed to Tahrir Square, the Egyptian symbol of the revolution, as soon as he finished a brief address carried by various Egyptian, Arab and international media outlets.
=======================================================

Look at the positive side: if Egyptian army fails to seize control, President Romney will – with hearty approval from Netaniahu – wipe his behind with Camp David Accords and save American taxpayers cool two billion bucks a year.

“Islamism is no threat to the United States. Nah, nothing to see here… Move along now… move along…”

CONSERVATIVES:Not all libertarians are nutso weak-kneed surrender-tarians. Some of us libertarians actually do want to fight back against Islamo-Naziism. Ron Paul – great on economics – DOES NOT REPRESENT LIBERTARIANS ON FOREIGN POLICY.

As we saw in Iran, when the Islamists first got elected, they then manipulated who could vote and finally just made up the election results ahead of time to see that they stay in power. This is called one man one vote once version of democracy. It is also worth noting that when the Islamists took over Iran they executed the army general staff and then executed minorities like the Bahai. No wonder the Egyptian military and the Coptic Christians are so scared. Democracy has no dog in this fight between the military and the Moslem Brotherhood. Neither side supports true democracy but for different reasons. The military to keep their money and stay alive. The moslem brotherhood because their policies if well known would not win in fair elections.

basically the Israelis are in the worst possible situation as of now, i wrote a rather lengthy post a while ago stating how there wouldn’t be immediate war, but years and years of steady attacks, rocket and small cell cross border attacks, just like the Gaza strip. Israel endured over 8 years of steady attacks from Gaza before finally retaliating with operation CAST LEAD, and the international reaction was vicious across the world. They were described as nazis, murderers killing innocent people yada yada, the Muslim Brotherhood actually gets the best of both worlds here, they get plausible deniability about the attacks, while embarrassing the Egyptian military if they fail to respond after the logical Israeli response, in this way they’ll get the usual Muslim street outrage about the “zionists” killing innocent Egyptians while building up national support, that’s how Hamas came into power. It would have been better if the MB just took control of Egypt right now, might as well have a decisive war rather than a slow bleed strategy

This doesn’t look good at all for Israel. Rocket attacks over the weekend and a terrorist attack across the Sinai border early Monday. Israel is moving tanks toward the Sinai border. I think the newly-elected MB president also stated that he had a goal of an Islamic Caliphate with “Jerusalem” as its capital. Not good at all.

TarheelBen on June 18, 2012 at 9:49 PM

exactly, and it’s not going to stop, as the MB will farm this out to “terrorist groups”, if the Israelis react there will be international condemnation and it will make the MB more popular, the logical thing after a few months of this would be to retake the Sinai, as the camp David accords are completely dead, but at this point it will take perhaps a dirty bomb smuggled across the border before Israel can even try

Mohammedan morals consist in prostrate like bowing 5 times a day in the general direction of some black stone in Mecca that is suppose to have fallen down from their moon-god, Allah, and attending mosque regularly at the appointed weekly time, and in breaking the ten commandments all the balance of the week. It comes natural to them to lie and cheat and kill and enslave in the first place, and then they go on and improve on that nature until they arrive at perfection. I never did dislike anyone as much as those Muslims and especially those blood thirsty Arabs, and, when Israel is pushed to war with them, I hope America and England and France will not find it good breeding nor good judgment to interfere.

They weren’t born to walk on water
They weren’t born to sack and slaughter
But on their soul, they weren’t born
To stoop and knuckle under
They can again learn to steal some thunder
They can again learn to work some wonder
And when the gauntlet’s down,
It’s time to rise and climb the sky
And soon the moon will smoulder
And the winds will drive
Yes, Israel grows older but it’s soul remains alive
All those tremulous stars still glitter
They will survive
Let their hearts grow colder and as bitter as a falcon in the dive

There was a dream, a dying ember
There was a dream, they may not yet remember
But they will resurrect that dream
Though rivers stream and hills grow steeper
For in the Middle East where life gets cheaper
Oh, here in this Hell the blood runs deeper
And when the final duel is near
They will lift their spear and fly
Piercing into the sky and higher
And the strong will thrive
Yes, the weak will cower while the fittest will survive
If they wait for the darkest hour
Till they spring alive
Then with claws of molten fire, they will devour like a falcon in the dive!

Look at the positive side: if Egyptian army fails to seize control, President Romney will – with hearty approval from Netaniahu – wipe his behind with Camp David Accords and save American taxpayers cool two billion bucks a year.

Archivarix on June 18, 2012 at 9:58 PM

And maybe the Israeli’s will be able to trust us again to actually help them, instead of stab them in the back.

I was talking to an Israeli kid not too long ago – really smart dude. He was just about to start his military service. The IDF put him in intel. Spoke, in addition, of course, to Hebrew, also Arabic and English flawlessly. We were talking about the MB takeover. I stressed to him that Israel had no strategic choice but to re-take the Sinai. He looked a bit overwhelmed, but I think inside he knew it was true.

It’s a crime that Israel is forced to go this alone since the Dem-Lefto-fascist scum are rooting for our enemies, and the Repubs (except for maybe Allen West) are total wimps. It’s not just Israel’s survival that makes a Sinai re-takeover vital. When the MB fully gets the canal, we’re all effed.

Said one Egyptian human rights activist of the military’s power grab, “With this document, Egypt has completely left the realm of the Arab Spring and entered the realm of military dictatorship. This is worse than our worst fears.”

No Shiite, Sherlock.

Israel already has her hands busy…between Iran competing for hegemony, the Russians on the move in Syria, and the Brotherhood in Egypt, you better be damn sure that Israel is prioritizing its “to-do” list….

…and Egypt just moved to the head of the line. Iran will maybe get a weapon soon, but not for awhile yet. Iraq is relatively quiet.

Syria is a big concern; civil “uprising” or not, their military is still largely loyal to the regime in power.

Egypt, OTOH is everything that Syria is not right now: The military is in charge, and the civilian leadership is splintered and frankly crazy enough to try something. Is the Brotherhood really willing to risk having the IDF come marching through Cairo to make a point?

Not that it would be a cakewalk either, but if they mix it up with each other, especially with the Syria mess continuing, then we’ll probably going to have to get involved, UN coalition or not.

It’s a crime that Israel is forced to go this alone since the Dem-Lefto-fascist scum are rooting for our enemies, and the Repubs (except for maybe Allen West) are total wimps. It’s not just Israel’s survival that makes a Sinai re-takeover vital. When the MB fully gets the canal, we’re all effed.

WhatSlushfund on June 19, 2012 at 1:08 AM

I agree. Just about everywhere else in the ME can go to blazes (literally) and it won’t hurt us one bit. We can get oil from elsewhere if we just grow a !@#$ing spine. But if they block or blow up the Suez, the entire world is in for some major hurt.

“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah [and] against Jerusalem.
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.”

Zechariah 12:2-3

“In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.”